PAPA is both “professional” and “amateur” but does not clarify how the two are distinguished. Since not even KME makes his living primarily on winnings, there are no professionals from a legal perspective.

ESPN8 ‘The Ocho’ will become a real thing Tuesday (8-8). No pinball on the schedule, but there will be ultimate trampoline dodge ball, a disc golf championship and something called the championship of bags.

All programs except for 1 have previously aired on ESPN channels, so this is just a day-long rebroadcast event of stuff that made it on ESPN1-7 previously. Maybe if they spin this off into its own network we’ll have a chance.

On a related note, pinball will be on the schedule at the State Games of America this weekend in Grand Rapids.

COMPETITORS COMPETE IN MORE TRADITIONAL SPORTS LIKE TRACK AND FIELD, ROWING, SOCCER, SWIMMING, TENNIS, FIGURE SKATING, SKATEBOARDING AND BMX, AS WELL AS MORE UNIQUE SPORTS INCLUDING PINBALL, YOGA, DARTS AND BEACH WRESTLING.

Amateur athletes from as far away as Hawaii are descending on Grand Rapids this weekend for the State Games of America, an Olympic-style competition that includes 12,000 competitors in 48 sports across 35 venues.

Would be cool to get a report from a local on what they’re doing with pinball. No idea how competive yoga works. Trampoline dodge ball sounds like more fun.

I’m running this tournament. We have a 5 game HERB style tournament with many divisions. Pro, Novice, Women, Seniors and 3 youth divisions. All receiving medals. We also have a separate classics tournament.

We started today at about noon eastern time. I’m not sure what to expect turnout wise. So far we’ve had mainly people who haven’t really played before which has been awesome! I expect this trend to continue throughout the weekend. Hopefully we can expose many new people to pinball who in turn can go home and spread the word about this game we all love.